2016, the year that Automobili Lamborghini celebrates the centenary of the birth of its founder Ferruccio, begins with a historical event: the first absolute participation at the 24 Hours of Daytona, the classic endurance race on the famous circuit in Florida scheduled from January 28 to 31.
Already on the weekend of 8-10 January, the four private teams supported by Lamborghini Squadra Corse that will participate at the 24 Hours of Daytona at the end of January have been able to test the performance of Huracán GTD during collective testing before the race, The Roar Test, taking immediately excellent results with best lap times in GTD class in the various sessions.
In Practice 3, the Lamborghini’s factory driver Fabio Babini (#28, Konrad Motorsport) clocked the fastest time in GTD class with 1’48″553 in front of the #16 Huracàn GTD (Team Change), second in class with a time of 1’48″559. In Practice 4 Babini lowered his record with 1’48″309, marking once again the best lap in GTD class, while in Practice 5 was the factory driver Mirko Bortolotti with the Huracán #48 of Paul Miller Motorsport to print the best laptime in class with a time of 1’48 “230.
Car #48 of Paul Miller, moreover, recorded the second fastest GTD class laptime of the whole Roar Test.
Here are the four teams that will deploy five Lamborghini Huracán in GTD configuration (Gran Turismo Daytona), the equivalent of the GT3 class in Europe, during the Daytona 24 hours along the 3.56 miles of the American racetrack.
Change Racing: protagonist of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America 2015, with the Pro-Am class victory, the team will field a Lamborghini Huracán GTD for the entire USA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 2016.
For the Daytona 24 hours, the drivers line-up sees Spencer Pumpelly, Justin Marks, Kaz Grala, Austin Cindric and Corey Lewis, the latter one driver of the Lamborghini GT3 Junior Program and 2015 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America World Champion, behind the wheel of the #16, the number chosen to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Ferruccio Lamborghini.
O’Gara Motorsport: the team based in Beverly Hills, who won in 2015 the Team Championship in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America, will field the Huracán GTD #11 driven by Townsend Bell, Bill Sweedler, Edoardo Piscopo and Richard Antinucci, the last two 2015 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Champions and Lamborghini GT3 Junior Program members.
O’Gara also take part in the entire WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 2016 in GTD class.
Paul Miller Motorsport: with long experience in US motorsport since the Eighties, Paul Miller Motorsport will use for the first time a Lamborghini Huracán GTD in the 2016 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, with the debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona.
At the wheel of the Lamborghini #48 there will be Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow, Bryce Miller and the Italian factory driver Mirko Bortolotti.
Konrad Motorsport: committed in 2015 in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe, the German team will race at the 24 Hours of Daytona with two Huracán GTD (# 21 and # 28) respectively assigned to Emanuele Busnelli and Jim Michaelian in the first, Rolf Ineichen, Lance Willsey, Franz Konrad, Marc Basseng and the GT3 Lamborghini factory driver Fabio Babini.
The debut at the Daytona 24 hours of Konrad Motorsport is the first of four events which it wishes to participate the German team, those enclosed within the Tequila Patròn North American Endurance Cup which sees, in addition to Daytona, the Twelve Hours of Sebring, the Six Hours of the Glen and the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Among the four categories of racecars that will compete at the 24 Hours at Daytona, the GTD class is the one that has the largest number of members (22 out of 54 total) and Lamborghini is the manufacturer with the largest formation, with five Huracán that will fight for the GTD top ranking at the Daytona 24 hours on 28-31 January.
